Friday, April 13, 2007

Folks please excuse me if I can't really post all of my own sh** tonight. Unfortunately, I have been watching bits and pieces of Roots on tv One, and I am too pissed off to focus.

Instead, I have this excellent post from ABC's Terry Moran about the Duke rape case fiasco:

"Mike Nifong, the North Carolina prosecutor who pursued a case of rape and kidnapping against three Duke University lacrosse players, has been found to have been reckless and deceitful in the discharge of his duties according to the state's attorney general. He abused the power the people of Durham granted him. Based on the public record of what he did in this case, he may well be properly disbarred. The accuser in this case has been shown to be either a vicious liar or a troubled fantasist. The three young men who she accused are truly innocent of the charges brought against them according to the North Carolina Attorney General and the investigation led by his office.But perhaps the outpouring of sympathy for Reade Seligman, Collin Finnerty and David Evans is just a bit misplaced. They got special treatment in the justice system--both negative and positive. The conduct of the lacrosse team of which they were members was not admirable on the night of the incident, to say the least. And there are so many other victims of prosecutorial misconduct in this country who never get the high-priced legal representation and the high-profile, high-minded vindication that it strikes me as just a bit unseemly to heap praise and sympathy on these particular men. So as we rightly cover the vindication of these young men and focus on the genuine ordeal they have endured, let us also remember a few other things: They were part of a team that collected $800 to purchase the time of two strippers. Their team specifically requested at least one white stripper. During the incident, racial epithets were hurled at the strippers. Colin Finnerty was charged with assault in Washington, DC, in 2005.The young men were able to retain a battery of top-flight attorneys, investigators and media strategists. As students of Duke University or other elite institutions, these young men will get on with their privileged lives. There is a very large cushion under them--the one that softens the blows of life for most of those who go to Duke or similar places, and have connections through family, friends and school to all kinds of prospects for success. They are very differently situated in life from, say, the young women of the Rutgers University women's basketball team.

And, MOST IMPORTANT, there are many, many cases of prosecutorial misconduct across our country every year. The media covers few, if any, of these cases. Most of the victims in these cases are poor or minority Americans--or both. I would hate to say the color of their skin is one reason journalists do not focus on these victims of injustices perpetrated by police and prosecutors, but I am afraid if we ask ourselves the question honestly, we would likely find that it is. Look for a moment at what James Giles endured:

I hope we all keep him and others in mind, as we cover the celebrated exoneration of well-heeled, well-connected, well-publicized young men whose conduct, while not illegal, was not entirely admirable, either. They aren't heroes. They aren't boys. They are young men who were victimized by a reckless prosecutor-and had the resources to fight him off" Thank you for that excellent and insightful post Mr. Moran, I know some of your fellow white people have been killing you for this one, but the field has your back. I blogged about the same damn thing before all the charges were dropped by the North Carolina Attorney General's office. Who by the way, went out of their way to say that these boys were innocent. (When was the last time you heard a prosecutor say that?)

Well, they ain't innocent in my book, and as far as I am concerned, the only difference between them and Don Imus is a few million viewers.

22 comments:

You know I tuned into TV One last night & started to watch but when Massa told Chicken George how he like him a fresh nigger girl, I had to turn quick fast & in a hurry because after all the Imus shit this week, I would have went to the plantation today & bitch slapped the first one of them I saw.

I watched some of the press conference the other day. Something- well lots of things- really bothered me while watching it. How the team all stood there with their smug, vindicated looks on their faces. How they all chomped on their gum. The way the press conference was basically a pep rally for the winning team. It was disgusting, and I couldn't watch very much. I had to turn it off. All I kept thinking was that they might be innocent in this case, but these boys are in no way innocent.

Terry Moran hit what was bothering me in the back of my mind square on. Thank god he's one of the (very)few brave enough to point it out.

I was talking to a friend about this just tonight. I was like, ' yeah, I know it must be hard to be accused of something', but I just couldn't muster 1.1 ounces of sympathy for these three. Five years ago, I would have had genuine sympathy for them, but not now. So they got screwed, so what.

Talk to me about many more Black and Brown prisoners who shouldn't be behind bars, that are.

I'm from Illinois, where 13 men were freed from DEATH ROW, because THEY WERE INNOCENT of the crime.

Unlike Mr. Nifong, NOT ONE POLICEMAN, DETECTIVE, PROSECUTOR has been brought up on any charges.

There is the John Birge, who TORTURED OVER 200 BLACK MEN, and the sob STILL has his police pension.

There is Joe Burkett, who railroaded Rolando Cruz THREE TIMES TO DEATH ROW- HE WAS COMPLETELY INNOCENT and not only did he NOT lose his job, he was the GOP's nominee for Lt. Governor this time around.

So, I just can't muster any remote sympathy for the lacrosse players. None, and I know that says something about me that makes me sad.

I also have been watching Roots, on and off. It's like it was yesterday. This was seared into my subconscious. I knew instantly which scenes were coming up....I'm glad I'm inside, and I have until tomorrow to calm myself again.

Wow...the posts about the Duke students I've just read are pathetic. You people are excellent rationalizers as well as supreme hypocrites. Pathetic. Next time you're voyeuristically enjoying a hip hop video on BET with some half dressed hoes shakin their thing in the camera or bouncin up and down on some dude's lap be sure and tell yourself that you're no better than a rapist (or Imus).

Field, c'mon by Durham next time you're down here and kick my ass if you'd like to give it a go.

"Field, c'mon by Durham next time you're down here and kick my ass if you'd like to give it a go."

No partner, I promise you I would do more than just give it a go.

But I tell you what, let's set something up, Shoot me an e-mail at: fnblg@yahoo.com. I will be glad to come to Durham or anywhere else of your choosing (Since I know your sorry ass would be too scared to come within 50 miles of Philly)

Maybe be we could even charge admission to watch your ass get kicked. Then we could split the money among our favorite charities.

If anybody played the race-card it was Mike Nifong. He's the one that injected race into this whole situation.

Moran is right, the three white boy's were wrong in thinking they could get away with disrespecting the strippers...most likely because the girls were black and within the confines of the frat-house.

On the other hand, the girl involved was wrong for responding the way she did...but I don't doubt for one minute that she was coaxed by the prosecutor. Ultimately the mess lies at Nifong's door step, he's the one resonsible for this whole fiasco.

I don't know where I fall on this one, those boys were total dicks and do deserve some punishment for their actions, even if they didn't rape anyone, but I also have trouble feeling sympathetic with a woman who changed her story more than once.

If there is no evidence of rape, what evidence do you have of racist epithets? This reminds me of Tawana Brawley, it's de ja vu all over again to quote Yogi.

This is the sort of thing that puzzles me about us. Even so much as an accusation of wrong doing by blacks against whites is enough to make it so in the eyes of a lot of black people. If we remember the Scottsboro Boys, is the idea to insure no one else ever has to go through that or to make somebody white pay for it?

I agree that these young men are less sympathetic in my eyes because they hired strippers for entertainment. If you turn on MTV or BET, you can see something similar. Thing is, they were accused of something they didn't do. They are not supposed to pay for it anyway because they are white and we suspect they must have done something wrong just for being white.

Where's your evidence? Because the accused are white? Everyone said the same thing about Tawana Brawley and that girl made up the whole thing. The woman in the Duke case has a reported history of being unstable. The woman who was with her that night never really did corroborate her story. The DNA evidence did not match. If DNA set OJ free, why not these guys? Every black person who makes an accusation against a white person is not necessarily a victim and the white person is not necessarily a criminal.

This reminds me of Wayne Williams in the Atlanta murders. Black people were so invested that the killer be a white man that a lot of people couldn't deal with the fact that someone black did it. When you read about the case you realize that Williams fit the profile to a T and the evidence against him was quite damning. After the conviction, one black man got in my face and screamed "A black man wouldn't do that to children!" That was his evidence.

Well Feild I got nothing. Were these young uh punks ( I call them the way I see em ) innocent? Tried in a court of law and exonerated, I guess. In the statute as law goes. But in society, no, not really.

As for your anonomous posters here that question your oppinion? Well something comes to mind. A fresh understanding for the crackers.

You saw "Roots" and you saw it on a African American Network? Like African Americans need to be pissed by that. It's inherent, you already are.

What should happen is that these crackers should be handcuffed to seats in a theatre and made to watch "Roots" from beggining to end.

If they don't walk out emotionaly drained then they deeper problems that they are not looking into.

My own Father did two firsts watching "Roots". One he cried watching a movie, and two he read the book. He never did much of either.

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